Sony Will Upgrade It's Xperia Z Line To Android 5.

Android 5.0 Lollipop  On Sony Xperia Z.
Sony has announced that it will certainly will bring Android 5, Lollipop to it's Xperia Z phones.

Sony Mobile will bring Android “L” upgrade to the entire premium Z series: including Xperia Z, Xperia ZL, Xperia ZR, Xperia Tablet Z, Xperia Z1, Xperia Z1^S, Xperia Z Ultra, Xperia Z1 Compact, Xperia Z2, Xperia Z2 Tablet, Xperia Z3, Xperia Z3v, Xperia Z3 Compact and Xperia Z3 Tablet Compact.
Sony Z Ultra Google Play edition devices will be the first and followed by the rest. Expect upgrades to show up in early 2015. Hope they will fix the issue of calling China (Baidu) with this release.

Sony Xperia Sending your Data To China Thanks to Baidu Spyware.

Update: See the bottom of the post to see an easy way to block  Baidu folder from being created.
Xperia Breach, Sony Xperia Phones Calling Beijing? http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/

Your Sony smartphone, with Android 4.4.x firmware, might be sending your personal data to China. You must be wondering why an American/Japanese firms phone be sending data to China. Only connection I can make is that they are made in China, just like your iPhone.Baidu Spyware, (as per Foresafe Mobile Security) is a threat to you and your data.

IP 202.108.23.105 in the OS Monitor capture above is in Beijing, China. (China Unicom)
As revealed by a post on Sony forums, "Unknown folder baidu is created on starting phone each time", it looks like more than just a Baidu folder creation, to which Sony has responded saying that Baidu folder creation, will be removed in a future release. But it does not say anything calling Beijing (at least I could not find any).
One user on the forum posted the folder structure for the Baidu folder;
baidu (date 21/01/1970 08:35:27) main folder on /mnt/sdcard
    pushservice (same date & time as above)
          files
          one more folder with 2 SQLite databases in it
                pushstat_4.1.db
                pushstat_4.1.db-journal

XDA Forum also has a thread about the issue.
While waiting for the Sony to respond, one user posted the following procedure which disables MyXperia app/service and does not void the Sony warranty, like if the phone is rooted.

1. Back up important data on the phone and do a factory reset.
2. Start up the phone, go to Settings -> Apps -> Running and force stop the myXperia apps running (there are 2). Remove the baidu folder using File Kommander.
3. Next, enable developer mode, Settings -> About Phone -> Click 7 times on the Build Number.
4. Download or install the Android SDK. Install it. Connect the phone to the computer with USB cable.
5. Next, run the adb tool in the android sdk's platform tools folder as (to be done in a command line window)
6. adb shell <enter>
7. <in the adb shell>pm block com.sonymobile.mx.android
8. exit adb
9. reboot

This will stop the Baidu folder from being created but there is no guarantee that the /system/libbdpush_V2_0.so library is not in use.

 Sony later responded that this is expected behavior for the MyXperia app and it is done to support both Chinese customers and Others outside China. But there are no explanations as to why users outside China connects to these Chinese servers, without any user interaction or permission.
Another user had a simple but effective solution, "First create a file named baidu on you PC. Then connect to PC through USB, delete the baidu folder and copy the baidu to your device. Now the baidu folder will not be created." Neat.

After Droid Wars, Here Comes Opium Wars. Is Google Too Blind To See Evil!?

Droid Wars, Opium Wars snapvoip.blogspot.com
Gizmodo carries an article that I read at a gulp. It was about Google and China war! Yes it is a literally a war because one is trying impose one's ideas on the other.
Pay heed, Google did not go to China for Chinese people nor it did not leave to save Chinese people. It might have helped Baidu reach it's goal but it is a by product!

Google entered China with trepidation in 2006: "We ultimately reached our decision by asking ourselves which course would most effectively further Google's mission to organize the world's information and make it universally useful and accessible. Or, put simply: how can we provide the greatest access to information to the greatest number of people?
"Filtering our search results clearly compromises our mission. Failing to offer Google search at all to a fifth of the world's population, however, does so far more severely."

I use Google extensively but on this issue, I am not with Google.
You can read the article by Brian Lam and the swath of comments, to understand (you do not have to agree or disagree).

Baidu Is Searching For Summit Of Share Price

Baidu Is Searching For Summit Of  Share Price snapvoip.blogspot.com
Google is aiding it's competitor in China mainland in an indirect way. Google shut down (A new approach to China: an update) it's search engine in China two weeks ago. 
This morning Baidu passed $600 price mark in U.S. public markets. Baidu is now expect to reach $690 price mark.
Even before Google left China, Baidu was already strong in China in multiple fronts and now the third largest search engine in the world.
Baidu
Find more facts at Techcrunch